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One German genius has engineered a faster, smarter board game. *
Photo: Baerbel Schmidt * In 1991, Klaus Teuber was well on his way to becoming one of the planet's hottest board game designers. Teuber (pronounced "TOY-burr"), a dental technician living with his wife and three kids in a white row house in Rossdorf, Germany, had created a game a few years earlier called Barbarossa and the Riddlemaster, a sort of ur-Cranium in which players mold figures out of modeling clay while their opponents try to guess what the sculptures represent. The game was a hit, and in 1988 it won the Spiel des Jahres prize—German board gaming's highest honor.
Winning some obscure German award may not sound impressive, but in the board game world the Spiel des Jahres is, in fact, a very, very big deal. Germans, it turns out, are absolutely nuts about board games. More are sold per capita in Germany than anywhere else on earth. The country's mainstream newspapers review board games alongside movies and books, and the annual Spiel board game convention in Essen draws more than 150,000 fans from all walks of life.
Released in 1995, The Settlers of Catan only recently caught fire in the U.S Because of this enthusiasm, board game design has become high art—and big business—in Germany. Any game aficionado will tell you that the best-designed titles in the world come from this country. In fact, the phrase German-style game is now shorthand for a breed of tight, well-designed games that resemble Monopoly the way a Porsche 911 resembles a Chevy Cobalt.
But back in 1991, despite having designed a series of successful German-style titles, Teuber still thought of making board games as a hobby, albeit a lucrative one. "With all the games, we would sell 300,000 the first year and then next to nothing the next," he says. So Teuber stuck with his day job selling dental bridges and implants, struggling to keep afloat the 60-person business he had inherited from his father. At night he would retreat to his basement workshop and play.
One day Teuber began tinkering with a new theme for a game: an uncharted island. In his original vision, players would slowly discover the island by flipping over tiles, then establish colonies using the indigenous natural resources. The game incorporated elements of other ideas Teuber was working on, but for some reason this one seemed special. "I felt like I was discovering something rather than inventing it," Teuber says.
Every once in a while, he would bring the new game upstairs to test it out on his family. They would play along, but Teuber could tell that the game wasn't working. Sometimes, in the middle of a match, he would notice his youngest son, Benny, reading a comic under the table. Other times his wife would suddenly remember a load of laundry that needed immediate attention. After each of these sessions, Teuber would haul the game back downstairs for further refinement. He repeated this process over the course of four years.
Eventually, Teuber whittled his invention down to a standard pair of dice, a handful of colored wooden houses that represented settlements and cities, stacks of cards that stood for resources (brick, wool, wheat, and others), and 19 hexagonal cardboard tiles that were arranged on a table to form the island. He had hit on something with this combination—the enthusiasm on family game night was palpable. During nearly every session, he, his wife, and their children would find themselves in heated competition. The game was done, Teuber decided. He called it Die Siedler von Catan, German for "The Settlers of Catan."
Released at the annual Essen fair in 1995, Settlers sold out its initial 5,000 copies so fast that even Teuber doesn't have a first edition. That year, it won the Spiel des Jahres and every other major prize in German gaming. Critics called it a masterpiece. Fans couldn't get enough, snapping up 400,000 copies in its first year. "It was a maturation of the form," says Stewart Woods, a board game scholar at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia. "It wasn't until Settlers that the whole thing broke wide open."
Since its introduction, The Settlers of Catan has become a worldwide phenomenon. It has been translated into 30 languages and sold a staggering 15 million copies (even the megahit videogame Halo 3 has sold only a little more than half that). It has spawned an empire of sequels, expansion packs, scenario books, card games, computer games, miniatures, and even a novel—all must-haves for legions of fans. And it has made its 56-year-old inventor a household name in every household that's crazy about board games, and a lot that aren't.
Most impressive of all, though, Settlers is actually inducting board-game-averse Americans into the cult of German-style gaming. Last year, Settlers doubled its sales on this side of the Atlantic, moving 200,000 copies in the US and Canada—almost unheard-of performance for a new strategy game with nothing but word-of-mouth marketing. It has become the first German-style title to make the leap from game-geek specialty stores to major retailers like Barnes & Noble and Toys "R" Us.
Settlers is now poised to become the biggest hit in the US since Risk. Along the way, it's teaching Americans that board games don't have to be either predictable fluff aimed at kids or competitive, hyperintellectual pastimes for eggheads. Through the complex, artful dance of algorithms and probabilities lurking at its core, Settlers manages to be effortlessly fun, intuitively enjoyable, and still intellectually rewarding, a potent combination that's changing the American idea of what a board game can be.
Klaus Teuber took four years to create what some have called the perfect board game.
Photo: Baerbel Schmidt Board games have been around for millennia: 5,500-year-old examples have been found in Egypt, playing cards were imported to Europe from the Muslim world in the 1300s, and chess has existed in its modern form for at least 500 years. But the mass-market board games we know today were born during the Great Depression, when Monopoly took off in the US. Over the years, new icons were established: Candy Land in 1949, Risk in 1959, Battleship in 1967.
Board games have continued to thrive for a simple reason: Whether for adults or children, they are—like poker nights, softball games, and bowling leagues—an excuse to hang out and interact with friends and family. As Jesper Juul, a ludologist, or game expert, at MIT explains, they create a communal experience that brings people together. Who won the last time and how, some interesting tactic, or a particularly remarkable stroke of luck all produce a shared memory.
Yet in the US, only a few types of games have really taken off. There are so-called lifestyle games, like Scrabble and chess, intellectual skill-based games whose devotees are interested in playing little else; party games like Trivial Pursuit and Jenga; and traditional strategy games like Risk and Monopoly, which are generally seen as child's play or possibly something to do while trapped in a snowstorm without power—just before you eat your own foot.
But part of the reason we don't play much Risk and Monopoly as adults is that those are actually poorly designed games, at least in the German sense. Derk Solko, a garrulous former Wall Streeter who cofounded the Web site BoardGameGeek.com in 2000 after discovering Settlers, explains it this way: "Monopoly has you grinding your opponents into dust. It's a very negative experience. It's all about cackling when your opponent lands on your space and you get to take all their money." Monopoly, in fact, is a classic example of what economists call a zero-sum game. For me to gain $100, you have to lose $100. For me to win, you have to be bankrupt. Gouging and exploiting may be perfect for humiliating your siblings, but they're not so great for relaxing with friends.
Monopoly also fails with many adults because it requires almost no strategy. The only meaningful question in the game is: To buy or not to buy? Most of its interminable three- to four-hour average playing time (length being another maddening trait) is spent waiting for other players to roll the dice, move their pieces, build hotels, and collect rent. Board game enthusiasts disparagingly call this a "roll your dice, move your mice" format.
Unfortunately, Monopoly still dominates. "It's the Microsoft of our world," Solko says. "If I could wave a magic wand and replace all the copies of Monopoly out there with Settlers, I truly think the world would be a better place."
German-style games, on the other hand, avoid direct conflict. Violence in particular is taboo in Germany's gaming culture, a holdover from decades of post-World War II soul-searching. In fact, when Parker Brothers tried to introduce Risk there in 1982, the government threatened to ban it on the grounds that it might encourage imperialist and militaristic impulses in the nation's youth. (The German rules for Risk were hastily rewritten so players could "liberate" their opponents' territories, and censors let it slide.)
Instead of direct conflict, German-style games tend to let players win without having to undercut or destroy their friends. This keeps the game fun, even for those who eventually fall behind. Designed with busy parents in mind, German games also tend to be fast, requiring anywhere from 15 minutes to a little more than an hour to complete. They are balanced, preventing one person from running away with the game while the others painfully play out their eventual defeat. And the best ones stay fresh and interesting game after game.
Teuber nailed all these traits using a series of highly orchestrated game mechanics. Instead of a traditional fold-out board, for example, Settlers has the 19 hexagonal tiles, each representing one of five natural resources—wooded forests, sheep-filled meadows, mountains ripe for quarrying. At the beginning of every game, they're arranged at random into an island. Next, numbered tokens marked from 2 to 12 are placed on each tile to indicate which dice rolls will yield a given resource. Because the tiles get reshuffled after every game, you get a new board every time you play.
The idea is that players establish settlements in various locations on the board, and those settlements collect resource cards whenever the token number for the tile they are sitting on gets rolled. By redeeming these resource cards in specific combinations (it takes a hand of wood, brick, wheat, and wool to build a new settlement, for instance), you expand your domain. Every settlement is worth a point, cities are two points, and the first player to earn 10 points wins. You can't get ahead by rustling your opponents' sheep or torching their cute wooden houses.
One of the driving factors in Settlers—and one of the secrets to its success—is that nobody has reliable access to all five resources. This means players must swap cards to get what they need, creating a lively and dynamic market, which works like any other: If ore isn't rolled for several turns, it becomes more valuable. "Even in this tiny, tiny microcosm of life, scarcity leads to higher prices, and plenty leads to lower prices," says George Mason University economist Russ Roberts, who uses Settlers to teach his four children how free markets work.
Wheeling and dealing turns out to be an elegant solution to one of the big problems plaguing Monopoly—sitting idle while other players take their turns. Since every roll of the dice in Settlers has the potential to reap a new harvest of resource cards, unleash a flurry of negotiations, and change the balance of the board, every turn engages all the players. "The secret of Catan is that you have to bargain and sometimes whine," Teuber says.
Teuber also made the game as flexible as possible, with numerous means of earning points. Building the longest road is worth two points, for instance, and collecting development cards (purchased with resource cards, these can offer a Year of Plenty resource bonanza or straight-up points) also brings you closer to victory. Having options like this is critical. The games that stand the test of time have just a few rules and practically unlimited possibilities, making them easy to learn and difficult to master. (Chess, for example, has 10120 potential moves, far more than the number of atoms in the universe.)
Finally, the game is designed to restore balance when someone pulls ahead. If one player gets a clear lead, that person is suddenly the prime candidate for frequent attacks by the Robber, a neat hack that Teuber installed. Roll a seven—the most likely outcome of a two-dice roll, as any craps player knows—and those with more than seven resource cards in their hand lose half their stash, while the person who rolled gets to place a small figure called the Robber on a resource tile, shutting down production of resources for every settlement on that tile. Not surprisingly, players often target the settler with the most points.
In addition to deploying the Robber, players will usually stop trading with any clear leader. In tandem, these two lines of attack can reduce a front-runner's progress to a crawl. Meanwhile, lagging opponents have multiple avenues for catching up.
All of this means that players must use strategy and move smartly, but even flawless play doesn't necessarily lead to easy victory. This is why kids can play with adults, or beginners with experts, and everyone stays involved.
"When a lot of us saw it, we thought this was the definition of a great game," says Pete Fenlon, CEO of Mayfair Games, Settlers' English-language distributor. "In every turn you're engaged, and even better, you're engaged in other people's turns. There are lots of little victories—as opposed to defeats—and perpetual hope. Settlers is one of those perfect storms."
Settlers may be the Mona Lisa of the board game renaissance, but Teuber makes for an unlikely da Vinci. He's balding, slight, and surprisingly modest. Each year, he makes an appearance at the Spiel convention in Essen, Germany's board game mecca. At an autograph-signing session there in October, a small line of teenage boys, middle-aged women, and starstruck 9-year-olds clutched copies of Settlers for Teuber to sign. Dressed in sensible black shoes and a blue shirt, he was so soft-spoken that fans had to lean in closely to hear him when he signed their games. He hardly comes across as the rock star he has become.
Teuber got into board games for one main reason: to entertain his wife, Claudia. The two were married in 1973, and that same year they had their first son, Guido, and moved to western Germany so Teuber could fulfill his mandatory military service. Not knowing anyone in town left Teuber with a lot of free time. "We played chess, but my wife always lost—and that's no fun," he says. "So I looked around for things we could both play." This quest eventually lead Teuber to Germany's game culture and ultimately to creating games himself.
Though he spent a few years studying chemistry before going to work for his father's business, Teuber doesn't have the academic pedigree of the other big names in German board games. Reiner Knizia, for example, a prolific designer who has created hundreds of titles, holds a PhD in mathematics. Wolfgang Kramer, another frequent Spiel des Jahres contender, studied software engineering before deciding to make games full-time.
Teuber tends to build his games organically—introducing an element here, tweaking an element there—until he's developed a fast, balanced, refined experience. The end result, however, is every bit as mathematically intricate as those of his colleagues.
In 2006, Brian Reynolds, a founder of Maryland software company Big Huge Games and the programmer who developed the AI behind the addictive computer classic Sid Meier's Civilization II, set out to make an Xbox 360 version of Settlers. To help programmers develop the game's AI, Teuber spent months exploring the mathematics of his most famous creation, charting the probability of every event in the game. The odds of a six or eight being rolled are almost 1 in 3 for example, while the chance of a four being rolled is 1 in 12. There is a 2-in-25 chance of drawing a Year of Plenty development card. Teuber created elaborate logic chains and probability matrices in a complex Excel spreadsheet so the videogame developers could see how every possible move and roll of the dice—from the impact of the Robber to the odds of getting wheat in a given scenario—compared. The end result was a sort of blueprint for the game that gave Big Huge Games a head start and showed just how complex the underlying math was. "It was the biggest, gnarliest spreadsheet I had ever seen," Reynolds says.
But even with such a precise outline, success isn't easy to repeat. Teuber has now made millions of dollars with Settlers and its multitude of offshoots, but the glass trophy shelf in his Rossdorf studio is getting a bit dusty: He hasn't won a major German board game prize since 1997. When asked about this, he seems genuinely unperturbed. "I don't have a secret recipe," he says. "I'm really lucky to have discovered such a great game once."
Once may be enough. Settlers has become so successful in the US that other German-style games are starting to ride in its wake, even in the midst of the recession. New Mexico entrepreneur Jay Tummelson licenses, translates, and imports German mass-market hits like Carcassonne alongside more offbeat titles like Galaxy Trucker by Czech designer Vlaada Chvatil. His company, Rio Grande Games, sold half a million of these titles in 2008. "We're growing at 30 to 35 percent a year, compounded," he says. "In the US, most of my customers this year weren't my customers two or three years ago. They didn't know these games existed."
Even the mass-market giants are starting to pay attention. To make Monopoly more competitive with German-style games, new editions are reemphasizing an old rule that no one paid much attention to: If a player lands on a property and chooses not to buy it, that real estate immediately goes up for auction. This engages everyone at the board and pushes property into the mix much faster, cutting the 74-year-old game's playing time by more than half. "It makes the game more intense and much quicker," says Helen Martin, Hasbro's vice president of global marketing for Monopoly. "And we know that people who play that way play more often." Hasbro similarly revamped Risk to speed up play; new rules make winning the game possible in less than an hour.
Settlers still has a long way to go before it overtakes classics like Monopoly, though. Part of the problem is brand recognition: Monopoly has been a best seller since the '30s and has been played by more than 750 million people. When it comes to board games, familiarity is key: The average board game buyer, according to Hasbro, is a mom getting her kids a gift. She's not going to take a chance on something she doesn't know.
That makes it tough for a foreign import with an odd name. "Settlers isn't mass-market yet," says Michael Gray, Hasbro's senior director of product acquisition. "Could it be? Anything's possible. But Settlers can still take over an hour to play, and it has a lot of rules."
Teuber's plan for overcoming this challenge is, oddly enough, computers. He hopes that digital versions of Settlers will help conquer (sorry, liberate) the US market. He and his son Guido are convinced that moving the game online and onto platforms like Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS is the best way to win converts outside the board game world. The idea is that after getting to know the game and its rules on the PC and game consoles, people will be more likely to buy the analog version—still the most fulfilling and social Settlers experience—to play with friends.
In 2007, Teuber launched the English- language version of PlayCatan.com, an online community that draws 15,000 or more players a day from around the world. The US audience is the site's fastest-growing segment. That same year, Big Huge Games released a downloadable version of Settlers for Xbox 360. And a PC version of the game and its expansions will come out in English this spring featuring multiplayer and AI smart enough to challenge the strongest players.
Will it be enough to take on the likes of Hasbro and become the go-to game in every American's hall closet? That's certainly the plan. "The challenge is to stay at a high level for years, to catch up to Monopoly," Teuber says. "It's a very, very high goal. If we could come into the neighborhood, that would be great." Only a few billion wheat-for-sheep trades to go.
Andrew Curry (firstname.lastname@example.com)* wrote about re-creating the Pleistocene in issue 16.10.*
Beyond Monopoly: Great Board Game Gifts for Geeks
Life Before the Console Age: Forgotten Electronic Games


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The mission of the University of Houston is to offer nationally competitive and internationally recognized opportunities for learning, discovery and engagement to a diverse population of students in a real-world setting. The University of Houston offers a full range of degree programs at the baccalaureate, master's, doctoral and professional levels and pursues a broad agenda of research and creative activities. As a knowledge resource to the public, the university builds partnerships with other educational institutions, community organizations, government agencies, and the private sector to serve the region and impact the world.
Website: http://www.uh.edu
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subset: commoncrawl


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Follow RFF News on your cell phone. Text follow rff to 40404 you will receive txt messages with RFF News
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Belle, where would you like me? If we do a good job, maybe puddin will take the night off!
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Always a warm welcome waiting for all. You could even dine at @belgraverooms too. https://t.co/ZJe0hLPZ8Z
RT @UGLE_GrandLodge: We have just dispatched a special edition of the First Rising with a message from the Pro Grand Master ✉ You can vie…
Or if you're at the University Of Nottingham, you'll want to check out https://t.co/EJpN0KKC6o
To all those looking forward to Freshers, did you know @DaybrookLodge is part of the @UGLE_UniScheme. This vid… https://t.co/93YpOUpUpE
In case you missed this great event, you can find it on-demand too. https://t.co/40CuLPiv1B


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Sunday, November 11, 2012
Sunday is here
the day of rest...
and i can say that i have not rested much AT ALL! LoL
It seems like as school gets closer to being done the busier i am!
That just means i am closer to getting to go home and see my family and friends!
I am SO SO SO SO SO SO homesick right about now and i can not wait to see my family
Well here are your LoL moments for this week!
Hope they bring a smile to your face :-)


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Shaping VUCA with Human Relations
In the world of VUCA, learning how to live in day-tight compartments' is not just an option, but a necessity for leaders. Practicing the mindset to focus on the here and now encourages leaders to focus on ensuring the organization currently operates at their best and is a kick-start f rom inaction to action that prevents small problems growing into something bigger. While many organizations waste mental energy and precious time on predicting the future, successful leaders use their mental powers to shape and build it. The only sacrifice needed is discipline.
Wat je zal leren
How to lead during VUCA by leveraging all aspects of human relations to create a positive dynamic work environment that will keep employees motivated and resilient.
Waarom je het wil leren
The demands of an increasingly volatile and complex market brings a great opportunity for organizational growth when properly handled by leaders. Be ready to recognize the power your actions and behavior can bring to not only survive a VUCA world but also to thrive in it.
Hoe het je zal helpen
Focusing on building Vision, Understanding, Clarity, and Agility as the pathway to coping and overcoming the daunting and somewhat paralyzing impacts of the VUCA world.


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Go on a tour of fascinating places, and see artworks and cultural assets of immense value – monumental and formidable witnesses to major events throughout the history of the church, and, very often, global politics.
Stay in abbeys and monasteries where the magic of days gone by can still be felt, where past and present are at one. Visit spiritual hubs that have become meeting places. Or spend a few days experiencing monastic life, far from the trials and tribulations of everyday life.
Embark upon a pilgrimage along countless routes and break new ground. The place at the end of the route is not your actual final destination, it is the journey that counts. Discover the St. James' Way network and other pilgrimage routes, either by bike or on foot, summon your inner strength and experience humanity, culture and history along the way.
Experience spiritual moments and be inspired by our selection of highlights.
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As Iran prepares to hold its quadrennial parliamentary elections on March 2, the first national elections since the sharply disputed presidential election in June 2009 which returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office, there is a significant power struggle among the various conservative forces, says Iran expert Farideh Farhi. The outcome of the elections, she says, will also provide some indication of the course of the presidential election to be held next year. She adds that domestic politics in Tehran and the upcoming U.S. elections later this year make the possibility of any negotiations on Iran's controversial nuclear program unlikely.
Iran will hold parliamentary elections on March 2. Are they significant, and what should we look for?
More on:
These elections will be the first national polls after the disputed 2009 presidential election [which led to months of protests alleging rigged elections that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office]. Even though there is no significant competition from the reformist camp--many of whose leaders are in prison or under house arrest--the current campaign has revealed deep concerns within the establishment about the size of the voter turnout. There is also intense competition among the various conservative forces which collectively identify themselves as "Principlists."
The elections are also significant because as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reaches the end of his constitutionally permitted two terms in 2013, these elections will likely provide some indication about the course of the presidential election to come.
Clearly, everyone who is running for office is a conservative of one type or the other, since they have to be vetted by the regime. Is there really a difference between forces loyal to Ahmadinejad's group and those close to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's leadership?
It is not really true that reformist candidates or candidates who identify themselves as reformists are not running. In fact, many of the current parliamentarians who identify themselves either as reformists or independent have been allowed to run and in all likelihood, many of them will get reelected, especially the ones from the provinces. My bet is that the number of reformists or independent candidates in the next parliament will be the same as they are today, between 55 to 65, out of 290. So, reformists will have a presence.
My bet is that the number of reformists or independent candidates in the next parliament will be the same as they are today, between 55 to 65, out of 290.
More on:
The political coalitions that are running lists in major cities as well as throughout the country are not revealing many differences in terms of their platforms. But there is a significant power struggle within the conservative camp and this election will reveal which one of them will have more influence, and that may impact the outcome of the next presidential election.
Can you explain the different groupings?
Well, the "Principlists" tried to come up with a unified list, including all the different wings that constitute their group. They were unable to do so. A group called the United Front of Principlists ultimately was unable to reach an agreement, so another group of people identifying themselves as the Steadfastness Front was formed, and at least in major cities like Tehran, the competition will be between those two groups.
The United Front of Principlists essentially has tried to bring together all the three wings of principlism together and has candidates that represent, for example, Ali Larijani [speaker of the parliament] wing as well as other hardliners, while the Steadfastness Front has a list of hardliners, mostly followers of the hardline cleric Mesbah Yazdi, and includes many people close to Ahmadinejad.
It will be interesting to see which one of those lists does well, particularly in the city of Tehran. Also interesting to watch is the fact that some members of the parliament who have been very critical of Ahmadinejad's government were not included in any of those lists, and they have chosen to present their own list in the city of Tehran, called The Voice of Nation, and the leader of that list is Ali Motahari. It'll be interesting to see how well he does in Tehran because he has been very critical of the government for its handling of the economy but also he has been quite critical of the regime as a whole for its handling of the post-election protests. It will be interesting to see how he does in the city of Tehran, particularly since in the last election in 2004 he did quite well.
Everyone will be watching how many people will actually participate in the election, given the fact that there has been quite a bit of disappointment in the nation over what happened in the last presidential election [where the opposition claimed the results were rigged]. There are concerns among the hardliners that not many people will go to vote particularly in large cities, and the regime has been trying very hard to suggest that this will not be the case and has tried to promote participation. But it's not clear whether it will be successful. So the question of what will happen if the turnout is low in cities like Tehran is very much at the forefront.
Even though the presidential elections are a year away in Iran, who are the most likely candidates at this time?
A strong electoral showing by hardline principlists is likely to encourage them to challenge Ali Larijani, the current speaker of parliament, who is running on the United Principlist platform from the city of Qom. Larijani is considered close to the traditional conservative and pragmatic principlist wings. A strong hardline showing or his own poor showing in Qom will decrease the likelihood of a presidential election bid by him and also decrease the chances of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the current mayor of Tehran and the most likely pragmatic conservative presidential candidate.
Much less clear at this point is who will be the favorite hardline candidate. The name of Saeed Jalili, Iran's current nuclear negotiator, has been mentioned, but generally there are few hardliners with national exposure. Other names mentioned have been former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who may have crossover appeal among all principlist wings, and former speaker of the Parliament Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, who will be the most likely candidate to challenge Larijani's speakership if hardliners do well in the election.
The political environment in Iran is quite closed, and the political leadership in Iran continues to be quite paranoid of the possibility of regime change.
What is the mood of the Iranian people? Are they worried about war with Israel or the United States? There has been a lot of talk about this, particularly in the United States and in Israel.
It is very difficult not to worry, particularly because of the constant talk of war. I have been told that about a month ago in Tehran, the concern was very serious. Increasingly, however, a lot of people are being impacted by the financial sanctions that are being imposed. This has led to questions about the future of Iran under increasing sanctions. A couple of days ago, former presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai said that Iranians should prepare for five years of very hard times to come, and the context of that conversation was not worries about war per se, but the reality that the sanctions that are imposed on Iran may not go away soon.
Iran has said they are willing to talk to the P5 +1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany) but nothing has happened yet. Is there any likelihood of any breakthrough?
This is a two-way affair. The likelihood of a breakthrough is as much a question of what the Iranians are thinking about as what the other side, the P5+1, is thinking. If P5+1 goes into negotiations with the demand that the Iran has to suspend enrichment completely, then Iran's position essentially will be the same as before, which is the rejection of that demand, and that conversation will not go anywhere.
On the other hand, the Iranians have introduced some breakthroughs in their nuclear program. They have made claims that they have built fuel plates for their Tehran Research Reactor and they have become self-sufficient in terms of running that Tehran Research Reactor. So they may actually be in a position of not willing to compromise on issues that they were willing to compromise in the past. For example, in October 2009, the Iranians obviously did show some interest in a transfer deal [the Iranians would supply a certain amount of enriched uranium to the West and in return would get fuel rods for their medical purposes] because of their need for the Tehran Research Reactor. If that need is gone, Tehran may be less willing to do such a deal.
However, if there is some flexibility on the part of the P5+1, then the Iranians may also show some flexibility because sanctions are creating so much havoc on the Iranian economy. My bet at this point, however, is that until American elections are over, conditions for any kind of serious negotiations on both sides are low.
That's nine months down the road.
Exactly, but the reality is that conditions for a compromise on both sides in terms of the domestic politics in both countries are not ripe for negotiations. For example, the U.S. Congress is contemplating the possibility of demanding suspension of Iran's enrichment program as part of any negotiation. That is a condition that Iranians have repeatedly rejected. So if that is part and parcel of domestic dynamics in the United States, then until the election passes, the possibility of any kind of negotiations should not be considered to be very high.
What is the human rights situation in Iran like these days? As bad as it's been since 2009?
It continues to be quite dire. The reality is that the Iranian government is quite concerned, to the point of almost being paranoid, about outside forces developing relationships with their population. Therefore, they have been very rough at the first hint that anyone is trying to change the Iranian political system. Political leaders continue to be imprisoned. Any kind of protests are dealt with very harshly. Newspapers are not totally shut down; there are reformist newspapers that are being published. Yet at the same time, they are very much controlled in the sense that they have to be very concerned about the kind of reporting they are publishing.
The political environment in Iran is quite closed, and the political leadership in Iran continues to be quite paranoid of the possibility of regime change. And of course, the policies that are being pursued by outside powers give them at least some reasons for being paranoid.


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Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday named a new county ethics chief to replace the one she dumped during an investigation into Assessor Joseph Berrios, a political ally.
Ranjit Hakim, an attorney at Mayer Brown who has represented the city on state and federal constitutional issues, was picked to take the top spot at the Board of Ethics. Hakim, who donated $2,750 to President Barack Obama-associated campaign funds, is expected to start next week in the $110,000-a-year job.
He'll replace MaryNic Foster, who quietly left her post as executive director in mid-May. Last year, the Foster-led ethics board sought to fine Berrios $10,000 for allegedly violating county nepotism rules and recommended he fire his sister and son. Berrios hired them for high-paying positions shortly after taking office in late 2010.
Preckwinkle spokeswoman Kristen Mack said the change would not alter the pursuit of the case against Berrios. Preckwinkle "decided to make a change in leadership," Mack said in an email. "She changed the person, not the policy or the mission of the ethics board."
Foster, an appointee of former Board President Todd Stroger, has not always been on the same page as Preckwinkle. Late last year, Foster convinced the board to alter Preckwinkle's budget proposal, with commissioners agreeing that the board president's new organizational plan would have hampered the ethics board's independence.
The ongoing efforts to sanction Berrios have put Preckwinkle in a political predicament. She has expressed support for the investigation, but has been continually careful to describe Berrios, chairman of the county Democratic Party, as "a friend" who otherwise is doing a fine job as assessor.
Foster, whose dismissal was first reported by the Sun-Times, said she was not given a reason for being let go.
"I understand I serve at the pleasure of the president," she said. "That's the nature of the position. It is the president's prerogative to have someone she wants in that position."
Foster, a 21-year veteran of the office who led it for five years before her departure, also defended her work.
"I think we did the best we could with the resources we had," said Foster, who noted that she also ran the Human Rights and Women's Issues commissions. Combined, the three agencies have fewer than a dozen employees and annual funding of less than $900,000.
The ethics board concluded Berrios violated county nepotism rules, but Berrios contended that as a separately elected countywide official, he is not subject to the ethics ordinance enacted by the board. This year, the ethics board got a judge to approve the hiring of former city Inspector General David Hoffman as a special prosecutor to press its case against Berrios.
Twitter @ReporterHal


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From a base in the Chamonix valley looking directly towards Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, I offer guiding services in all mountain activities. These include off-piste skiing, ski touring and ice climbing in the winter season, and alpine mountaineering and rock climbing in the summer. I also offer big wall climbing and expeditions to remote areas, film safety work and instruction in rope access and rescue techniques. Living in Chamonix with its huge skiing and mountaineering potential, much of my guiding is based here in the valley. Click on the webcam image to the right to see images uploaded every hour from my balcony. I guide throughout the Alps - Valais and Vaud in Switzerland, the Val d'Aosta in Italy and the Tirol of Austria are all favourite stamping grounds . Outside the Alps, I climb in Scotland in winter and have a wealth of expedition experience in Patagonia, Arctic Norway and the Himalaya. I hold the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA) carnet, the legal requirement to guide on glacial terrain in the European Alps. I am a member of both the British Mountain Guides and its French equivalent, the Syndicat National des Guides de Montagne. Having gained so much from over 20 years of skiing and mountaineering, I get huge satisfaction from passing that experience on to others. Whatever your ambitions in the mountains, it's my mission and pleasure to help turn your dreams into reality.
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Athabasca Basin and beyondDecember 5th, 2014
Uranium news from Saskatchewan and elsewhere to December 5, 2014
by Greg Klein
Next Page 1 | 2
Fission strikes 3.72% U3O8 over 64.5 metres, delays maiden resource
All assays are in but Fission Uranium's (TSX:FCU) highly anticipated resource for Patterson Lake South seems to have been put off. The milestone was originally scheduled for this month but in a December 1 statement president/COO Ross McElroy said, "We expect to be able to release preliminary results by early 2015." Meanwhile the company announced last summer's final 18 delineation holes, again flaunting the PLS trademark of high grades at shallow depths.
This batch comes entirely from R780E, by far the biggest of four zones along a 2.24-kilometre potential strike. R780E itself now extends about 164 metres at its widest point and 905 metres in strike, remaining open in all directions. The upcoming resource will focus on zones R780E and R00E.
Some of the best December 1 assays follow.
Hole PLS14-275
- 0.2% U3O8 over 26 metres, starting at 137.5 metres in downhole depth
- (including 1.26% over 2 metres)
- 0.31% over 9 metres, starting at 171 metres
- (including 1.96% over 1 metre)
- 13.84% over 10 metres, starting at 71.5 metres
- (including 29.29% over 4.5 metres)
- 0.48% over 13 metres, starting at 117.5 metres
- (including 1.17% over 4.5 metres)
- 0.83% over 30 metres, starting at 131 metres
- (including 2.09% over 10.5 metres)
- 1.24% over 6.5 metres, starting at 163.5 metres
- (including 2.5% over 2.5 metres)
- 0.4% over 14.5 metres, starting at 251.5 metres
- (including 1.02% over 4 metres)
- 0.54% over 9 metres, starting at 177 metres
- (including 3.84% over 1 metre)
- 2.61% over 9 metres, starting at 257.5 metres
- (including 8.61% over 2.5 metres)
- 0.96% over 7.5 metres, starting at 287.5 metres
- (including 2.56% over 2 metres)
- 0.36% over 15 metres, starting at 299 metres
- 7.91% over 21.9 metres, starting at 61.1 metres
- (including 17.3% over 9.5 metres)
- 0.42% over 30.5 metres, starting at 86.5 metres
- 1.49% over 4.5 metres, starting at 96 metres
- 3.72% over 64.5 metres, starting at 133.5 metres
- (including 32.53% over 6.5 metres)
- 2.34% over 11 metres, starting at 198.5 metres
- (including 11.74% over 2 metres)
- 0.8% over 10.5 metres, starting at 61 metres
- (including 1.77% over 4 metres)
- 0.27% over 21 metres, starting at 111 metres
- 0.7% over 33 metres, starting at 174 metres
- (including 2.21% over 3 metres)
- (and including 2.2% over 4 metres)
- 0.52% over 22.5 metres, starting at 184 metres
- (including 1.39% over 3 metres)
- 2.21% over 5.5 metres, starting at 210 metres
- (including 6.76% over 1.5 metres)
- 1.51% over 13.5 metres, starting at 246.5 metres
- (including 2.38% over 5 metres)
True widths weren't available.
Fission noted that scissor drilling brought "vastly improved strength of mineralization on section 735E." Oriented opposite to the south-to-north holes, they "provide geometry control and confirmation on the mineralization." One scissor hole hit the star assay for this batch, 3.72% U3O8 over 64.5 metres, in an area that had previously seen only moderate results, the company stated.
With assays for 22 exploration holes still pending and a winter program in the planning stages, speculation remains on whether the company will spend more time testing the property's lesser-known areas.
Denison drills 22.2% U3O8 over 2.5 metres at Wheeler River
The final batch of assays from Gryphon's summer season at Denison Mines' (TSX:DML) Wheeler River property revealed the zone's highest grade so far, 22.2% U3O8 over 2.5 metres. Announced December 2, that hole was also the deepest, making down-plunge extensions a priority for the next round of drilling, scheduled to start next month.
As usual, the chemical assays generally show better grades than the previously reported U3O8-equivalents that came from a downhole gamma probe.
Some highlights include:
Hole WR-571
- 8.8% U3O8 over 2.5 metres, starting at 757.5 metres in downhole depth
- 1.9% over 1 metre, starting at 761.5 metres
- 2.5% over 1 metre, starting at 651.1 metres
- 9.5% over 1 metre, starting at 675.5 metres
- 1.8% over 1 metre, starting at 714.5 metres
- 2.1% over 1 metre, starting at 717.5 metres
- 22.2% over 2.5 metres, starting at 768 metres
- 1.5% over 1 metre, starting at 779 metres
- 5% over 2 metres, starting at 665 metres
- 1.5% over 1 metre, starting at 675.5 metres
- 14.6% over 2 metres, starting at 696.5 metres
- 2.7% over 2 metres, starting at 626.5 metres
The company estimates true widths at about 75%.
Wheeler River's summer program comprised 20 holes totalling 14,937 metres, all of it at or near the newly discovered Gryphon zone.
Meanwhile, as a result of metallurgical testwork from the project's Phoenix deposit, "a high-purity yellowcake product was produced that met all ASTM C967-13 specifications," Denison stated. The sample grade was 19.7% U3O8, close to the average for Phoenix, which hosts 70.2 million pounds indicated.
The company closed a $14.99-million private placement in August.
With a 60% interest in Wheeler River, Denison acts as project operator. Cameco Corp TSX:CCO holds 30% of the 11,720-hectare southeastern Athabasca Basin property, leaving JCU (Canada) Exploration with the other 10%.
Lakeland Resources boosts portfolio, offers $1.88-million private placement
All acquired by staking, four new properties and five property expansions announced by Lakeland Resources TSXV:LK on November 19 increase the company's portfolio by 40,218 hectares in and around the Basin.
The five expansions cover targets identified by historic data. Among the highlights is the 4,753-hectare addition to Lazy Edward Bay, which underwent extensive field work last summer. Now totalling 31,128 hectares, the project features eight exploration trends, many of them drill-ready. Other additions came to Lakeland's Riou Lake, Hawkrock Rapids, Small Lake and Fedun Lake properties.
Of the new land, the 1,508-hectare Carter Lake property covers part of the Carter Lake Structural Corridor, parallel to the Patterson Structural Corridor hosting the discoveries of Fission and NexGen Energy TSXV:NXE.
If you look back to 2006 and 2007, there were probably 60 to 70 juniors active in the Basin. Right now you've got about 20. So if we do see this [price] resurgence continue, we'll have that opportunity to link up with JV and strategic partners and get as many drills turning as we possibly can.—Jonathan Armes, president/CEO of Lakeland Resources
Cable Bay, a 1,077-hectare property on the Basin's southern rim, benefits from extensive geophysics showing a trend of graphitic meta-sedimentary rocks in the basement, below 10 metres or less of Athabasca sandstone.
The 6,479-hectare Highrock property on the Basin's southeastern margin features a moderately strong conductor that has yet to see follow-up work.
Extending beyond the Basin's eastern rim, the 8,889-hectare Wright River project underwent an airborne survey showing a radiometric anomaly in the property's centre. Regional lake sediment samples have graded up to 61 ppm.
Early new year plans include a 1,500-metre program on Star/Gibbon's Creek, two adjacent properties forming one project on the Basin's north-central rim. Also drill-ready are Lazy Edward Bay and, east of Star/Gibbon's, Newnham Lake. More funding is expected from a $1.88-million private placement announced December 4.
"There's not that much ground left to be had in the Basin," Lakeland president/CEO Jonathan Armes tells ResourceClips.com. "Most of what we see as quality ground is not available. If you look back to 2006 and 2007, there were probably 60 to 70 juniors active in the Basin. Right now you've got about 20. So if we do see this [price] resurgence continue, we'll have that opportunity to link up with JV and strategic partners and get as many drills turning as we possibly can."
Read more about Lakeland Resources.
NexGen plans 18,000 metres for Rook 1, updates other properties
Funded by an $11.5-million private placement that closed last month, NexGen plans a three-rig, 18,000-metre program to start in January. Work will focus on Rook 1's Arrow zone and along strike to the northeast and southwest, but will also test some of the project's regional targets, the company stated on December 3. An infill ground gravity survey will precede the drilling.
Now complete are airborne VTEM and magnetometer surveys over Rook 1 as well as additional nearby land that has had little or no previous mention from NexGen, the "SW2 property portfolio which includes Bishop 1 and 2, Meanwell and R-7 claims." Winter plans include a radon-in-water survey.
NexGen also updated what it calls its "SW3 project portfolio (Rook 2, Sandhill and Dufferin)." Rook 2 and Sandhill underwent airborne gravity surveys. Dufferin got airborne VTEM and magnetometer surveys, as did the eastern Basin Madison and 2Z Lake properties.
Rook 1 covers all the southwestern Basin's major uranium-bearing conductor corridors, according to the company. Still pending are assays from 16 summer holes on Arrow. In October the company claimed one of the Basin's best-ever drill results.
UEC reports 77% increase in Burke Hollow's inferred resources
Seven trends at Uranium Energy Corp's (NYSE MKT:UEC) Burke Hollow project in Texas now have total inferred resources of 2.9 million tons averaging 0.09% for 5.12 million pounds U3O8. About 14,152 metres of drilling in 526 holes were used to calculate the 77% increase. UEC has three additional areas of the property under consideration for drilling.
Burke Hollow, potentially an in-situ recovery operation, has an application for a radioactive material licence and mine permit currently under review.
The 7,824-hectare project lies about 80 kilometres from the company's Hobson processing plant, the centrepiece of UEC's "hub and spoke" properties. The portfolio includes the Palangana ISR mine, the Goliad ISR development project and nearly two dozen exploration projects, two in Paraguay and the rest in the western U.S. The company released a preliminary economic assessment for its Anderson uranium project in Arizona last September, as well as a PEA for its Slick Rock uranium-vanadium deposit in Colorado last April.
On December 2 UEC stated it secured US$5.6 million of surety bonds to replace the same amount in reclamation deposits for future decommissioning. The bonds "require cash collateral of $1.7 million, allowing for the release of $3.9 million of previously restricted cash to the company."
Last March the company received a two-year extension on a $20-million loan.
Next Page 1 | 2


text:
The NBA restart continues Monday with games on NBA TV and ESPN
Saturday 19 September 2020
cnet.com - 1 month ago
NBA restart: How to watch Pacers vs. Rockets, Clippers vs. Nuggets today without cable - CNET
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text:
Originally appeared in The Consumerist on July 22, 2008
By MG Farrelly
MG Farrelly is a public librarian and has written a list of seven ways that your library can help you during a bad economy. Libraries are an excellent resource and they're pretty easy to use. Don't worry if you're not a big reader, there's lots more stuff to do at the library besides just checking out books.
- You can get pretty much any book at the library: A book habit can be expensive. Even second hand books can add up if you read a lot. Even the smallest library can access inter-library loan, Worldcat, OCLC and other library loan services to get you even the most obscure and out of print material.
- Yes, we have movies: Many libraries charge a nominal (1-2 dollar) fee for renting recent or "popular" titles. It's something of a controversy in the profession, one side arguing all library services should be free, the other saying "We're not a video store!" I tend to fall on the side of free for all. In any case, the fee is often far less than what you'd pay for a rental at a chain video store, and the fees to cover costs of processing and growing the video collection. If you're looking for a rare film, perhaps older or on an obscure format (Betamax tapes are out there still) libraries can save you a ton compared to buying it on Ebay.
- Kids Activities: Any library worth its salt offers a summer reading program for kids. Often with prizes, programs, and events all summer long. Libraries also offer story times, arts and crafts, computer classes, movie nights, and reading clubs for kids of all ages.
- Save Money and maybe your life!: Libraries offer seminars in home buying, estate planning, and even purchasing electronics and other big-ticket items. Libraries also offer free blood pressure screenings and programs about weight loss and exercise.
- Make new friends: Library book clubs and book discussion groups are great ways to meet people. Some libraries even offer "mingling" events for single patrons.
- Find a new job!: I can't tell you how many times local employers have come in asking to post job listings or drop off materials about open positions. Many libraries offer resume writing workshops, computer training, and even job fairs. College and university library job fairs are often open to the public.
- Libraries listen to consumers!: We like to call them patrons, but we really do listen. Do you want a story time for kids after 5pm? Ask for it! Want more books about home finance or budgeting? Just ask! Libraries often go to great pains to suss out what the community wants, letting us know directly is great. The complaint or suggestion of a patron carries a lot of weight with library directors and boards, so you are being heard.


text:
Last edited: 2 August 2013
Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement – Young Volunteers for the Environment – (JVE) began as a small group of youth who were touched by the degradation of their land and the impoverishment of their people. They gathered weekly in the rural village of Tsiko (a mountainous area of Togo) to discuss issues of environment and development. Their concern for the environment and frustration with the lack of information on environmental issues available to them, prompted them to organize and begin working to provide a better future for the youth of Togo. Consequently, JVE was founded in 2001 in accordance with Agenda 21 and the principle that "education is important to change the attitudes of the people and to ensure that populations have the necessary tools to assess and tackle the problems of sustainable development". Today, JVE is an international environmental advocacy NGO operating in 13 countries throughout Africa and the Americas. Its international scope has already been recognised by several local and international partners, including the Global Young Greens and the Global Youth Action Network.
It is managed by a five member Board of Directors, elected for two years, and an Executive Staff currently employing six permanent members and eight interns, mostly from Europe. With a membership outnumbering the 1000, JVE meets annually for activity reports and to review its program.
Strategy[edit | edit source]
The mission of JVE is "to involve youth (and marginalised groups) in the sustainable development process and promote social justice for all." In order to achieve that goal, JVE has set up four extensive programs that include:
- Environmental education
- Social justice and economic, social and cultural rights
- Youth empowerment and volunteering
- Access to natural resources and biodiversity conservation
- Sustainable development (renewable energy, recycling, participation)
JVE is strictly not for profit, non-political and not affiliated to any religion. Its core values include sustainability, justice, transparency, gender equity, intra-intergenerational equity human rights, youth participation and ecological integrity.
News and Recent Developments[edit | edit source]
- March 2009: Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement (JVE) taught over 150 people how to build and use solar cookers over the past year and a half. During a general assembly meeting in late 2007, about 100 participants from several cities in Togo, Cote d'Ivoire and Benin gathered for a workshop in Notse. Over the course of three days, participants learned basic solar cooking concepts and skills, participated in the construction of their own solar CooKits, gained valuable management skills, and heard testimony from JVE project participants about the many benefits solar cookers have brought to their lives. One such testimony came from a women involved with a JVE solar water pasteurization project in the Vo prefecture. She discussed how solar cooker use has reduced the number of pulmonary illnesses in the community, and how pasteurization skills have similarly lessened the incidence of waterborne disease. She also spoke vividly about how her status in the community had changed because of her involvement with the project, so much so that the chief now refers all issues of natural resources management to her — an example, she says, of how the role of women in the community is elevated with empowering projects like these. In August, 2008, JVE organized Operation Amis du Soleil, a five-day gathering in the Casablanca quarter of Lome that brought together dozens of people, mostly youth, to learn about solar cooker use and to build solar cookers for JVE's solar water pasteurization project in Vo prefecture. (Eleven women's groups in Vo produce solar cookers, but they are not always able to keep up with demand).
- February 6-15, 2009: The NGO Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement, ENDA Tiers Monde, and the Togo Ministry of Mining, Energy and Water in partnership with Friends of the Earth-Norway (NNV) are happy to announce and invite you to the forthcoming CLIMATE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY WEEK, scheduled to take place in Lome and Sotouboua, Togo (West Africa), from 6-15 February 2009. This event is aimed at popularizing the use of the diversity of renewable energy products now available. One main part of this event, for which we particularly call for your participation is the FEEL 2009, the Green Energy Exhibition Fair, which will last 11-15 February, in the premises of the Exhibition Center of the Lome Big Market, that is indeed in the heart of the city. This event will draw about 50 differents exhibition groups and attract more than 5000 visitors. More information...
- August 2008: Sena Alouka of Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement writes: "I am very happy to inform you that this morning we have started a mass production week, a special operation in Lomé, in response to a special interest expressed by the quarter where our office is based, Casablanca. Actually, the people of Casablanca kept blaming us for bringing the benefits of the solar cooking and water pasteurisation only to the Vo region women, whereas, they who are close to our office, do not even understand how it all work. So we decided, in cooperation with the Casablanca Development Committee to organise a weeklong training for all interested volunteers, youth especially, to train them about the cookits production. Iam thrilled with joy to inform you that, all the men and women of the place gathered this morning to attend the opening ceremony. Several old men and women were inthe attendance. At the time, Iam writting this mail about 55 young people are either preparing, the glue, some applying the foil while others are cutting the cookers. We have deliberately decided to organise it at the public place of Casablanca, next to the main road, thus bringing lot of attention and interest. The name OPERATION AMIS DU SOLEIL (Operation Friends of the Sun) is aimed at creating awareness around solar applications and harness the volunteer spirit of young people in the area where JVE is heardquatered for the benefit of the planet. A new club (CLUB DES AMIS DU SOLEIL) will be created at the end of this week (see program) and will help spread the solar good news to other areas of the city. On friday, a football match, the distribution of certificates to participants and other events will closed the week, with a serious media coverage. I am sending some pictures, which are just 3 hours old, in which you can see this morning's introduction to our project, demonstration, testing the heat, youth participants taking note of the lessons, preparing the glue, applying the foil and Q&A session. It is a nice idea for which Iam very proud about. It will be wonderful, if we can organise a second session of this in another Quarter, as many other quarters of Lomé are asking us to extend the initiative to their area as well. I am convinced that cardboard are a wonderful tool to address some of the energy problems we face today. The amazement i saw in the face of people, even well educated people who stopped by to see what was going on, is an eloquent testimony of the benefits of the solar cookers."
- December 2007: The General Assembly of Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement was organised, 21-23 December 2007 in Notse, 150 km N of Lome. It was a skillshare on sun cooking designed for youth delegates, JVE-trained women sun cooks, partners from Togo, but also from Côte d'Ivoire and Benin. About a 100 participants attended with good gender representation. The message from the conference: World Populations, please GO SOLAR! Photos from the event are here. You can also read a report from the event.
- April 2007: Dozens of delegates from many parts of Togo and Ghana attended a conference last December in Lome themed "climate change: a socio-political challenge." The conference was organized by Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement (JVE) and showcased solar cooking and solar water pasteurization. Demonstrations and construction workshops were available to conference attendees. Beneficiaries of a JVE solar project shared testimonials of how solar cooking has changed lives in the Vo region. Also attending the conference were Togo's Deputy Director of the Ministry of Environment, the Chief Cabinet to the Minister of Youth, and representatives of the media.
- August 2006: Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement organized a regional solar cooking conference in Vogan. Over 60 people from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Togo attended, including Mr. Joseph Odey, a leading solar cooking promoter in Nigeria and Vincent Nnanna, who has been teaching solar cooking in Benin for years. Youth groups and women's groups from Togo sent representatives as well. Also attending were Togo's Deputy Minister of Energy and Water, the Attache to the Minister of Environment, and the Prefect of the Vo District. Many people learned to make and use solar cookers and were shown how to use the cookers to pasteurize drinking water. Some of the attendees from outside Togo were happy to take their newly constructed solar cookers back to their home countries. A parabolic-type solar cooker was assembled and presented to the District Hospital of Vogan. In addition, participants from several countries agreed to form the Network of Solar Actors of West Africa to promote further discussion and to foster the spread of solar technologies in the region. The Togolese Ministries of Energy and Environment sponsored the conference. Additional support was received from Norges Naturvernforbund, a Norwegian nongovernmental organization.
See also[edit | edit source]
Contact[edit | edit source]
Sena Alouka
Jeunes Volontaires pour l'Environnement
131, Rue Ofé, Tokoin Casablanca
Box 8823
Tel: +228-2200112
Mobile: +228-90216740
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Web: http://www.jve-international.org


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Sound like something that you'd only see in a video game? Well, thanks to the maniac YouTube weaponcrafter Joreg Sprave, it's also something that exists in real life. Granted, it's a javelin with a very small chainsaw on the end, but I don't think that distinction would matter if you caught one of these suckers in the chest.
Hey, look at that, it's almost Wednesday already. My, how the time flies when you're spending your evenings playing Ni no Kuni and watching videos of guys firing deadly tools out of massive slingshots.
Everybody still doing good? Good. Feel free to talk slingshots, chainsaws, or whatever else, here or over in the Talk Amongst Yourselves forum. Have good conversation, and remember to wear safety goggles.
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The one thing a newspaper reporter learns within minutes on the job, and even more so after years in the trenches, is that the power of the press can turn a single story into a profound agent of change.
In the fall of 2011, The Vancouver Sun learned about the plight of many elementary school children right here in our own backyard, boys and girls who were showing up at school every morning without breakfast, without coats and boots to protect them from the cold and rain, without a lunch or snack, without even the basic school necessities that any right-thinking adult would expect in a world-class city in one of the richest societies — and countries — in the world.
But the truth was out there, told to us by a Vancouver inner city school teacher who wondered aloud, and with much emotion, just how we as a community could allow this to happen.
So did we. And we were compelled, as the proprietor of a powerful printing press, to do something about it.
And so we told teacher Carrie Gelson's story, and that of her Grade 2/3 class at Admiral Seymour elementary, but we soon realized we needed to do more beyond just reporting that story, and so we decided to form a new initiative within our 32-year-old Vancouver Sun Children's Fund charity.
We called it Adopt-A-School, and our plan was to ask readers to help us help Carrie's kids, and others like them.
We knew that what we were doing was a bit risky, that by bringing this troubling issue to the attention of readers that public schools and their boards and unions, not to mention the education ministry, might balk at the publicity and our intentions, especially given our newspaper has pulled few punches in its coverage of the perpetual teachers vs. government vs. parents vs. taxpayers contretemps.
We worried, too, about asking readers to help us supplement diminishing school board budgets, to fill the gaping holes left by an unsteady economy, to assume the job that some parents wouldn't, or couldn't, do.
But we decided that none of it mattered, that all the potential politics and perceived roadblocks were not important.
The kids were.
And, to our delight, Sun readers agreed, responding without hesitation, donating cash and clothing, school equipment and field trips, coming to the rescue with such generosity that by the spring of 2012, our newly launched project had raised close to $800,000 (donated funds of $350,000-plus were matched in the first year by the Children's Fund) to distribute. We did it all over again in the fall of 2012, raising another $400,000.
Along the way, we invited schools to apply for AAS funding, to tell us how we could help, and when they did, we told their stories, assessed their needs and began writing cheques. Those grants, more than $1 million to date disbursed to several dozen Metro Vancouver schools, and boosted by corporate donations, have paid for breakfast and lunch programs, warm clothing, field trips, and supplies and equipment essential for students with learning disabilities such as autism.
The process has been overwhelming, and gratifying, but the truth is that our job is not yet done.
There are more than 1,600 public schools in B.C., and we know that we have only scratched the surface. We know, anecdotally, that there are many more children throughout the province going to school with empty stomachs, lacking the basic necessities to succeed in life.
While we've made good progress in some areas of Metro Vancouver, it's time to spread the word. We still have AAS money in the kitty (see details in the accompanying story), and are not only anxious to put it to work but committed to maintaining the AAS momentum.
Which means we'd like to hear from more schools with needs that we can help meet, both in and beyond the urban limits, because what we have learned is that Adopt-A-School isn't about inner city vs. outer suburb, or rich vs. poor, or teachers vs. parents, or private funding vs. public funding, or even pride vs. prejudice.
It's about the readers and their newspaper giving back to the community.
It's about the kids.
The deadline for Adopt-A-School 2013 applications has been extended to March 15, and priority will be given to requests for food programs, clothing, books, field trips, emergency needs for families and support and supplies for special needs children. More information and an online application form can be found at http://www.vansunkidsfund.ca/apply-for-funding/


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text:
|Article Index
|UNRIC Library Newsletter - June 2007
|New information material
|New titles
|All Pages
UN in General
International Year of the Potato 2008
English, French and Spanish: http://www.potato2008.org/
National Competitive Recruitment Examination 2008
English: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/exam.htm
French: http://www.un.org/french/Depts/OHRM/examin/fexam.htm
United Nations Common Database (UNCDB)
As of 1 May 2007, use of the Common Database will be FREE OF CHARGE. No subscription will be necessary after that date, and any user can enjoy the full range of data, metadata and various search tools without restriction. UNCDB has the largest and most authoritative compilation of United Nations and agency statistics ever compiled, covering economic, social, financial and development topics. There is no comparable international database available in print or on the Web, from any source.
UN Documentation on the Environment
The Dag Hammarskjöld Library has prepared a new chapter for the UN Documentation Research Guide on the Environment. The guide provides an overview of the development of UN consideration of issues related to the environment, highlights the major bodies in the UN family currently at work on the topic, and provides information about the kind of documentation produced for each body. Currently available in English, the guide will be translated into the other official languages.
Peace & Security
Logistics Support Division (LSD)
The Logistics Support Division (LSD) under the Office of Mission Support of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations announces the launch of its web site. Developed as part of a larger and ongoing initiative aimed at achieving greater gender balance in staffing in the Division, the web site was created to: - Make readily available information about the work that LSD undertakes in its mission to support peacekeeping operations around the world, -Highlight LSD's activities to enhance gender within the Division, - Provide information about career options with LSD, particularly for professional women, who have traditionally been underrepresented in fields such as engineering, logistics, aviation and transport, and cartography.
UNDP Support to the Timorese Electoral Cycle
Under the "Background Information" of the homepage menu you will find a broad selection of election related materials regarding the first and second rounds of Timor-Leste's Presidential and Parliamentary Elections. Materials available on this site include press releases, election laws, regulations and procedures, observer reports, codes of conduct, and general election information. In addition you will find regular program updates about the work done under the UNDP Timorese Electoral Cycle project (February Update, March Update, May Update) and information about the different components of the program including voter education, media, observer coordination and support to political parties.
United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (Background Note: 30 April 2007)
English: http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/bnote.htm
French: http://www.un.org/french/peace/peace/bnote.htm
Africa & the Millennium Development Goals: 2007 Update
The report brings together the latest data compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division from across the entire United Nations System. The report shows that challenges remain daunting, yet progress is emerging. To share with you some of the highlights, the report shows that the rise in extreme poverty -- the number of people living on less than one dollar a day -- has levelled off since 1999. It also shows that, in the face of rapid population growth, African countries have increased primary school enrolment rates to 70 per cent in 2005, but more investments in the sector are needed to reach the goal of universal primary education.
Compendium of Innovative E-government Practices
This publication – released by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) - is a compilation of 107 recent case studies from 48 countries that cover a wide range of innovative practices, including e-democracy, gender equality, e-education, e-commerce, information access, and citizen service delivery.
New ECOSOC Web site
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has a new Web site that includes information about ECOSOC in general, the President, and Meetings. Links to Documentation by type include: Resolutions and Decisions from 1946-present, Reports from 2004-2006, recent Publications, and Newsletters 2003-2007.
World Economic Situation and Prospects
The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2007 provides an overview of recent global economic performance and short-term prospects for the world economy and of some key global economic policy and development issues. According to the report, the world economy is expected to moderate in 2007 after three years of historically high growth. The weakening housing market in the United States is a major factor in the global slowdown. The economic recovery in Japan and Europe is not strong enough to replace the US as the engine for growth of the world economy.
Human Rights
Human Rights in the World: Updated Country Pages
Now available also in French and Spanish
French: http://www.ohchr.org/french/countries/index.htm
Spanish: http://www.ohchr.org/spanish/countries/index.htm
Compiled on one page the following information for each country is listed: status of ratifications for Human Rights treaties, reporting status, Voluntary Pledges and Commitments, special procedures, most recent concluding observations
Legislative History of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(OHCHR publication)
A new publication that aims to become an essential research tool for children's rights advocates was launched by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on 11 June 2007. The two-volume set lists among the many major advances ushered in by the Convention recognition, for the first time in a human rights treaty, of the differential and often discriminatory impact that national legislation, policies, attitudes and cultural traditions can have on girls. "The Legislative History on the Convention on the Rights of the Child" is the first comprehensive record of the drafting of the Convention. It is the result of 10 years of work by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Save the Children Sweden.
REFWORLD: UNHCR launches online resources for decision makers
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced the creation of an online protection tool for use by those who have to make decisions on the status of people who have fled their homes. Refworld contains a large collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks. The free service provides information that UNHCR and its partners need to help them make a decision about whether to grant an asylum seeker refugee status based on a well-founded fear of persecution.
The Brussels based United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe - UNRIC provides information on UN activities to the countries of the region. It also provides liaison with institutions of the European Union in the field of information. Its outreach activities extend to all segments of society and joint campaigns, projects and events are organized with partners including the EU, governments, the media, NGOs, schools and local authorities.
United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC Brussels)
Residence Palace, Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 155, Block C2,7th and 8th floor, Brussels 1040, Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 788 8484 / Fax: 32 2 788 8485


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Not scary: New Deuces tries to shake Outback rep
Before the Outback Lodge on Preston Avenue closed last year, it wasn't unheard of to find it in the news when fights broke out and gunshots fired. The new owner of what's now called Deuces Lounge is trying to turn that image around.
"We want to let people see the Outback is dead," says Jerome Cherry. "They don't have to be afraid."
Cherry opened Deuces Lounge in September to handle a variety of musical genres–- except hip hop. "We want hip hop," he says, "but we don't want the violence."
Instead, the club has jazz night, metal, salsa, and a different take on karaoke that Cherry calls "Be Seen, Be Heard" on Wednesdays. "It can be karaoke, it can be poetry, it can be stand-up comedy," says Cherry.
Another legacy of the Outback affects Cherry's ABC permit. He only serves beer and wine, and the ABC stipulated that the club stop serving alcohol at midnight. Cherry, who doesn't drink, believes the lack of hard liquor will draw a crowd more interested in music than drinking.
The interior has been spruced up, booths added, and the stage enlarged.
"This is the biggest stage outside the Jefferson and Southern," says Cherry, who sees the upstairs of the two-level venue as a lounge, with the downstairs as a club.
And to further nourish a more family friendly atmosphere, Saturday afternoons are for teen bands to rock out in a place where parents can come see them play in an alcohol-free zone. Cherry is a bass player, and this is his first go at running a night club.
"This is my dream," he says.
7 comments
I wish them all the best, but like the place across the street it just seems that certain venues carry a "curse" and no matter what new owners do, the same troublemakers just come back and their presence drives off the new clientele the new management is trying to attract. Hope this doesn't happen, but not counting on it.
Now if they could persuade the C'ville PD to set up sobriety checkpoints on Preston Ave. around 2:00 AM, maybe they'd have something going.
This won't last 6 months. Sad, but true.
This is a great thing they are doing!
I hate to be negative but for this place to become successful they're going to have to be very hard on any troublemakers.
Right. If they have hip hop, that'll be the first test. Sorry, sad but true. And I suspect it'll be just like the other crap hole in about 6 months. Outback wasn't much trouble either..except on hip hop nights. A hip hop club needs to be built in the middle of the woods in Buckingham County. Let em blast it out....uh music that is :)
There are hip hop shows on the Deuces calendar if u check online
My sons band played at Deuces a few weeks ago, nice time! Best of success Cherrys!


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Kurupt (Feat. J. Black & Jah Free) - Im The Man
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